The present invention relates generally to the labeling of articles and relates more particularly to a novel label assembly suitable for use in labeling articles durably yet removably.
Adhesive labels are currently applied to a wide variety of articles for many different types of purposes. Examples of such labeled articles include, but are not limited to, commercial vehicles adorned with decals that identify a business name or trademark of the vehicle owner, window storefronts labeled with decals that disclose the name of the business, private vehicles decorated with bumper stickers that display a message wished to be conveyed by the vehicle owner, and containers for beverages, detergents or health and beauty aids decorated with labels that identify the type of product contained therein and/or a trademark for the product. Even wooden tabletops have been decorated by certain restaurant chains with adhesive labels displaying a restaurant logo or the like.
Garments and other finished fabrics (e.g., towels, bed linens, tablecloths, etc.) have traditionally been labeled using one or more of the following: hanging tags conveying price and similar information; pressure-sensitive adhesive stickers denoting size and similar information; and cloth tags conveying article size, fiber content, instructions for care, and the manufacturer's name or trademark. Whereas the above-mentioned hanging tags and stickers are typically intended to be removed by a consumer after purchase of the article, the above-mentioned cloth tags are typically not intended to be removed by the consumer after the purchase of the article, but rather, are intended to be permanently affixed to the article. In fact, such tags are commonly known in the industry as permanent care labels and typically are sewn directly onto the article.
Unfortunately, the presence of a permanent care label on certain articles, such as undergarments or other garments in which the label is in direct contact with the wearer's skin, can become irritating to the wearer. As a result, it is not uncommon for a wearer of such a garment to remove the permanent care label, typically by cutting or simply by ripping the permanent care label from the garment. However, as can readily be appreciated, such a practice not only results in a loss of the information contained on the label but the act of cutting or ripping the permanent care label from the garment can also result in significant damage to the garment, itself.
A recent approach to this problem has been to replace the aforementioned permanent care cloth label sewn onto the garment with a heat-transfer permanent care label adhered to the garment. An example of the aforementioned approach is disclosed in commonly-assigned PCT Application No. PCT/US03/38315 entitled METHOD FOR LABELING FABRICS AND HEAT-TRANSFER LABEL WELL-SUITED FOR USE IN SAID METHOD, filed Dec. 2, 2003, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Other documents relating to the labeling of garments using heat-transfer technology include the following U.S. patents, all of which are incorporated herein by reference: U.S. Pat. No. 6,423,466, inventors Hare et al., which issued Jul. 23, 2002; U.S. Pat. No. 6,383,710, inventors Hare et al., which issued May 7, 2002; U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,772, inventors Magill et al., which issued Sep. 29, 1998; U.S. Pat. No. 5,411,783, inventor Mahn, Jr., which issued May 2, 1995; U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,349, inventor Mahn, Sr., which issued Nov. 22, 1988; U.S. Pat. No. 4,256,795, inventors Day et al., which issued Mar. 17, 1981; U.S. Pat. No. 3,992,559, inventors Day et al., which issued Nov. 16, 1976; U.S. Pat. No. 3,959,555, inventors Day et al., which issued May 25, 1976; U.S. Pat. No. 3,920,499, inventors Day et al., which issued Nov. 18, 1975; and U.S. Reissue Pat. No. 28,542, inventor Meyer, which reissued Sep. 2, 1975.
One problem that has been noted in connection with the application of heat-transfer labels to articles is that a small percentage of the labels tend to be improperly applied to the article (e.g., the label is improperly positioned on the article, the label is incompletely transferred to the article, the wrong label is inadvertently transferred to the article). For certain types of articles, this problem can be remedied by removing the heat-transfer label from the article (by peeling or scraping the label from the article and/or by treating the label with a solvent to dissolve the label) and then by applying another label to the article. However, such a remedy is often not feasible in the case of a permanent care label applied to a garment or like fabric article because the fabric article may be damaged by picking at or scraping the overlying label or by contacting the fabric with a dissolving solvent. This difficulty is exacerbated by the fact that the permanent care label, by its very design, is intended to remain adhered to fabric under adverse conditions, such as laundering. If an improperly applied heat-transfer permanent care label cannot be removed from a garment or other fabric article to which it is attached, it may be necessary to discard the article or to sell it a reduced price, both of which are clearly undesirable options.
Accordingly, one approach that has been taken to remove heat-transfer permanent care labels from fabric has been to apply, under pressure, a strip of aggressive, pressure-sensitive tape to the label and then to peel the tape and adhered label away from the underlying fabric. Unfortunately, this approach is limited in its utility in that it can only be performed with any degree of success during a window of approximately ten minutes following application of the label onto the fabric. (After said approximately ten minute window, the aforementioned technique does not typically result in adequate removal of the label from the fabric.) However, such a short window of time for remedying labeling errors is disadvantageous because it typically requires the same individual who is involved in applying the labels to the articles also to inspect the labeled articles and to remove any misapplied labels. As can readily be appreciated, these additional responsibilities typically lead to a reduction in the number of properly labeled articles that can be processed by a given individual.